


World of Dreams

by MadAlien



Series: David Rose Shows His Feelings [3]
Category: Schitt's Creek
Genre: M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-06-10
Updated: 2019-06-10
Packaged: 2020-04-23 22:23:03
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,517
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/19160161
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/MadAlien/pseuds/MadAlien
Summary: David and Patrick consider fatherhood.





	World of Dreams

Patrick knew David well enough to realize that directly asking David about having children was a Bad Idea. David had made far too many flippant remarks about how he was clearly unfit for procreation or parenthood for an out-of-the-blue question like, “Hey, David, do you ever think about maybe having a baby?” to be received with anything other than a derisive scoff or a dramatic eye roll. 

But Patrick also knew that behind the flippant remarks and the aura of disinterest, there was a hidden away part of David that secretly wanted to be a father. True, that part of David had not existed when Patrick and David first met, but it had grown and developed alongside their relationship over the years, and nearly two years after their wedding, Patrick decided it was time to start coaxing that sequestered little desire of David’s into the sunlight. 

He began by simply pointing out cute babies when they came across them—babies who entered the store strapped into carriers on their parents’ chests, babies at nearby tables when they had dinner in Elmdale, babies on the tv shows he and David watched entwined together on the couch after a long day at the store. Patrick was pleasantly surprised at how quickly David began to respond favorably to these “casual observations” of Patrick’s, and he was even more pleasantly surprised when David began to notice the babies before Patrick had a chance to even point them out. 

The first few times David had nudged Patrick to bring his attention to a chubby little human, the acknowledgement of the baby was couched in terms of “disturbing lack of care” the baby’s parents had taken when dressing the child—how could they not see that the number of frills on that dress was gaudy and, frankly, embarrassing? But soon enough, David began to look past the harsh realities of limited infant fashion options and began to comment on the child itself. Patrick took this as a sign that David was ready for closer interaction with tiny humans. 

When he and David visited Patrick’s parents for their thirtieth wedding anniversary party, Patrick’s goal was to have David interact with as many children as possible. Given that Patrick’s rather large extended family seemed to be in a constant state of reproducing, this did not turn out to be a challenge by any definition of the word.

Not ten minutes after arriving at the party, Patrick’s favorite cousin, Colleen, came to catch up with David and Patrick, bringing her little troop of rugrats along with her. Patrick hugged his cousin and then bent to squeeze and greet her two older children, five-year-old Aiden and three-year-old Grace. “This is my husband, David,” he told the children, who immediately threw themselves at David’s legs and hugged them, chanting “David! David! Play with us!” The Brewers were a naturally affectionate bunch. 

David cast a wide-eyed look of terror at Patrick, who quickly realized that perhaps the energetic children were a bit too advanced for David at this stage of the process. He quickly peeled the two kids off of David’s legs and told them to go play with their cousins so the adults could chat. The kids ran off, David looking slightly relieved, and the three adults were left with just one child—Colleen’s youngest child, Olivia, who, at just shy of one year old, was happily perched on her mother’s hip. 

Patrick reached out to Olivia, who, ever the mellow child, was happy to be transferred to his arms. He cooed at her and made her giggle for a few moments, until thrusting her unceremoniously into David’s arms. The element of surprise, Patrick had decided, was likely necessary, as he strongly suspected that David would balk at being directly asked if he wanted to hold the child. 

“Patrick!” David exclaimed, awkwardly rearranging the baby in his arms. “I don’t—” He cut himself off, not really knowing what sentiment he was even going for. He strangely enjoyed the warm weight of the child against his hip, and it didn’t take a genius to see that Olivia was a very, very cute baby. 

“You’re fine, David,” Patrick said warmly. “Look, she likes you.” 

David looked down into Olivia’s little face to see that she was beaming up at him, a few tiny teeth poking through her gummy smile. David couldn’t help but smile back—his real smile, not the twisted, closed mouth one he did when he was trying to suppress his emotions. “She’s, um, she’s really cute,” David said to Colleen, his gaze flickering to Patrick’s face, which was lit up with love and pure happiness. Patrick reached out and squeezed David’s arm affectionately. 

By the end of the party, Patrick was thrilled to realize that David had held a total of three babies of various ages and had even played with Aiden and Grace for ten minute or so, although the majority of that playtime was really just David lecturing the confused children about the importance of developing a skincare routine from a young age. 

-

And so Patrick’s plan continued. He wove words and anecdotes pertaining to children and parenthood into conversation when it felt appropriate, always gauging David’s reaction. He had no desire to manipulate David into parenthood if he truly didn’t want it—but he also knew that it would take some effort to help David overcome the deeply rooted insecurities that led him to believe that he wasn’t capable of being somebody’s father. All Patrick wanted was for David to realize it was an option.

It was because of all of Patrick’s calculated and precise efforts—and that fact that, to be perfectly honest, he thought it would take much longer to bring David around—that left Patrick utterly shocked when David was the one to first bring up having children, without a single word of direct prompting from Patrick himself. 

Patrick supposed that it was all thanks to Ted and Alexis, really. He and David had spent the majority of the day pacing the waiting room alongside Johnny and Moira, while Alexis’s labor progressed agonizingly slowly. Every so often, an ever-excited Ted would pop out to give them an update before returning to his wife’s side, a spring in his step. 

Finally, at 8:45pm, Ted burst into the waiting room. “Do you want to meet our daughter?” He practically shouted, unrestrained joy radiating off his handsome face. 

The Rose clan hurried after Ted, and found a tired Alexis cradling a tiny, pink bundle against her chest. Ted hurried to perch on the bed next to her, one arm around his wife, the other stroking the tiny face of his newborn child. “This is Harlow Jane Mullens,” Alexis said, beaming at her family. 

Johnny and Moira immediately crowded the bed, gazing down at their first grandchild, but Patrick and David hung back a moment. Patrick heard a loud sniff from his husband and turned to see David hastily wiping wet eyes. He snuck an arm around David and pulled him close to affectionately kiss his temple. “You’re an uncle, David,” he said. David nodded, wiping away another tear before pushing his parents aside to get a good look at the baby. 

“You are a goddess,” he told Alexis, in a rare moment of verbal affection for his sister. He sat in the chair next to her bed and kissed her on the cheek before shyly asking if he could hold baby Harlow. Alexis looked shocked, but only for a moment, and gently transferred the sleeping baby to her brother’s arms. 

David looked down at the baby and then up at Patrick, who had moved to stand behind David, his hands on David’s shoulders, and in that one glance, Patrick knew without a doubt that all his suspicions about David secretly wanting to be a dad were correct.

-

Still, Patrick hadn’t anticipated David bringing it up on his own—and he certainly hadn’t expected the conversation to happen so soon. 

But late that night after the Rose clan had bid farewell to Alexis, Ted, and Harlow, and David and Patrick were curled up together in bed, David turned his head from where it had been resting on Patrick’s chest. “Patrick?” 

“Yeah, baby?” Patrick answered somewhat sleepily. 

“Do you…” He was quiet for a moment, and Patrick could practically hear his husband trying to buck up the courage to finish his thought. “Do you ever think about maybe wanting to be a dad?”

Patrick blinked, certainly more awake now than he had been a moment ago. He shifted so that he could see David’s face better. “Yeah, I do. I think I’d like being a dad.” 

Silence for a moment. “Me too,” David said quietly. “I….for a long time, I didn’t think I could do it, but now…”

“Now?” Patrick prompted, hauling David up and shifting them both so that they were lying on their sides, faces inches apart. 

“Now,” David said, “I think I can. I think that if we’re doing it together, I could be a good dad.” 

Despite how long David and Patrick had been together and how many leaps and bounds David had grown in terms of being soft and open and vulnerable, Patrick had never witnessed David being so tender and bashful. This raw look into David’s very soul, into the part of him that he valiantly kept hidden from the rest of the world filled Patrick with more love than he thought humanly possible. He cradled the back of David’s head in his hand and drew him in for a soft kiss. “I know that you would be an amazing dad, David Brewer-Rose,” Patrick said softly. “And if that’s something you want, I will be by your side the whole time. We can make our own little family together.” He kissed him again. “But, David, I need you to know that if you don’t want kids, we will still be a family, and I will still be by your side for whatever life throws at us. As long as I have you, I am the happiest man alive.” 

David nodded, lips pressed together as he tried to quell the tears building up. A few escaped, making their way down his face as David kissed his husband tenderly. “I want to be a dad,” he said, his voice still quavering a little, but stronger than before. “And don’t think I haven’t noticed you ‘subtly’ bring up kids and parenthood all the time and forcing babies into my arms,” he teased. 

Patrick had the decency to look a bit chagrined at having been so transparent and obvious. “I just wanted you to realize that it’s an option,” he said. “I wanted you to realize how worthy and capable you are of giving and receiving love.” It was Patrick’s turn to be shy now. 

David smiled and pulled Patrick flush against his body. “I know,” he whispered against Patrick’s hair. “I know, and I love you for it.” 

-

Eighteen months later—six months determining that they were really, really sure they wanted a baby; one month of bucking up the courage to ask Stevie to be their surrogate (she heartily and immediately agreed); two months of fertility treatments; and nine months of Stevie actually being pregnant—David and Patrick found themselves in the same position as they had been the night that Harlow came into the world and the pair had decided to embark upon their own journey to parenthood. Stevie, nearly two weeks overdue, was set to be induced in the morning, and David and Patrick lay curled in bed, marveling at their last night before parenthood officially began. 

The men were once again on their sides, curled up knees touching, hands clasped. David stared into Patrick’s warm eyes, scarcely able to believe how this button-faced man had helped him grow from a prickly, insecure marshmallow into a (more) affectionate man eager to embark upon fatherhood. “I love you,” David whispered. 

“I love you, too.” 

David let out a breath. “What if I don’t love our baby the way I should?” He asked, the biggest insecurity he still held onto slipping out into the darkness. 

“You will,” Patrick assured him, squeezing his hand. 

“But what if I don’t?” David persisted. 

Patrick kissed him softly. “You will, David. We will both love him, because he is ours.” 

David smiled a soft smile. “But what if he doesn’t love us?”

Patrick chuckled. “Well I can’t promise that won’t happen.”

“Patrick!” David said, a little indignant, playfully swatting his husband’s chest. “I’m serious!”

Patrick gathered David against his chest, still laughing. “He will love us.” He kissed David’s brow, smoothing his hand down his husband’s back. “Now go to sleep, sweetheart. We’re having a baby tomorrow.” 

And sure enough, late the next morning after a miraculously short and easy labor, the nurse slid a squalling, purple-ish child into Patrick’s arms as David sat by Stevie’s side, still clutching her hand and whispering, “Thank you,” over and over again. She smiled up at him, uncharacteristic tears in her eyes. “Go meet your baby, David.” 

David kissed her on the forehead twice and rushed to the other side of the bed where Patrick stood cradling the infant. He slid an arm around Patrick’s waist, the other arm going up to join Patrick’s in supporting the baby. Patrick tore his eyes away from his child for a moment to kiss David. “We’re dads,” he whispered, his voice thick. 

David just nodded, unable to speak for the love that rushed over him—love for Stevie, for Patrick, and for the tiny, little stranger peering up at his parents with curious eyes. Patrick shifted the baby into David’s arms and took a turn to go sit with Stevie, repeating David’s thanks and handing her a glass of water as the doctors tended to the afterbirth and cleaned Stevie up. 

“What are you going to name him?” Stevie asked. 

David and Patrick made eye contact, both nodding their agreement that the name they’d discussed was the right one. “Felix Steven Brewer-Rose,” David said. He met Stevie's eyes, and she smiled at him, overcome with emotion.

He brought little Felix over to the bed so Stevie could get a good look at him and marvel at his tiny nose and tiny mouth and tiny hands. It didn’t take long for his parents and Ted, Alexis, and Harlow to make their way into the room and take turns cooing at baby Felix and snuggling him close. David took in the sight of all the people he loved most in the world, hardly able to believe that there was a time that he hadn’t known what it meant to be a family and deeply grateful that he had so much love in his life, no matter how unconventional or chaotic it might be. 

And when Felix had made the rounds and found his way back into David’s arms, he looked down at the little child, any trace of fear about not loving him unconditionally a distant memory never again to be recalled.


End file.
